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Care home bosses face grilling from committee

AN Oxfordshire healthcare provider faces questioning by councillors after it was revealed an employee was disciplined following an incident involving a victim of the Winterbourne View scandal.

A BBC Panorama programme last month revealed Simone Blake, who was abused at Winterbourne, near Bristol, was transferred to a hospital run by the Oxfordshire-based Ridgeway Partnership after her ordeal in 2011.

She ended up at Wiltshire-based Postern House, run by Ridgeway, to be assessed and rehomed.

Now Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, which took over responsibility for Ridgeway in early November, has confirmed a member of staff at the hospital was disciplined after a restraining incident involving Miss Blake.

Spokesman Jamie Stevenson said: “Patients are sometimes restrained for their safety or for the safety of staff, and if anyone feels that restraint is not done in the correct way, an investigation is launched. Action was taken against one member of staff who was investigated for something which didn’t follow procedure.”

In the Panorama programme, Ridgeway was criticised over its failure to communicate with Miss Blake’s parents.